New Delhi: On-demand convenience platform Swiggy announced on Wednesday that it has implemented a sexual harassment redressal policy for its female delivery executives, who are otherwise exempt from the purview of Indian laws aimed at preventing such incidents at the workplace. In accordance with the policy, no other female delivery executive would be assigned to the same customer with the contact number highlighted, even if the customer changes locations, the company said in a blog post. This is in addition to supporting the women delivery executives in filing police complaints, the company said.
Swiggy Head of Operations Mihir Shah stated, ‘With the sexual harassment redressal policy, we are taking a proactive step in fostering responsibility among all players in the community’. In addition, he added, ‘We hope these measures will prevent events from occuring and also encourage women delivery executives to notice and report problems with the assurance that action would be taken. Our objective is to empower women to feel safe on Swiggy’s delivery platform’.
As gig workers, delivery executives are not covered by Indian laws for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH), according to Swiggy. The company also stated that internal studies have revealed that many delivery executives are not even aware of the boundaries of sexual harassment or misconduct and that there are methods to address it. If a female delivery professional experiences sexual harassment from clients, male coworkers, restaurant partners, or even Swiggy staff, she can get assistance by calling the company’s Emergency SOS hotline.
‘After offering emergency support, she can file a complaint with our on-the-ground staff should she wish Swiggy to launch an inquiry,’ the blog post said. According to Swiggy, a mechanism is being developed to guarantee that no other female delivery executive from Swiggy will ever be assigned to a customer when harassment has already occurred and once a preliminary inquiry has been completed. Grievous actions punishable by law would result in clients being kicked off the Swiggy platform, it continued. ‘The number will be marked so that a female executive is not allocated even if the customer switches location’.
According to the blog post, ‘it becomes a POSH case as the employee is connected to the firm in the instance of a Swiggy employee being the culprit’. Contrarily, whether the harasser is a customer, restaurant partner, or another delivery partner, an internal committee led by a woman will undertake an initial inquiry and then provide advise on what the delivery executive may do in accordance with the applicable Indian criminal statutes, it was stated.
The female delivery executive’s allegation will be supported by Swiggy, and authorities’ inquiry will also be supported. The business said that as part of its initiatives to improve women’s safety, delivery executives have been given the choice to ‘refuse deliveries if they judge a location to be hazardous, with no questions or disincentives applied’.
‘This process gives us intel to continuously map and avoid unsafe neighbourhoods, especially for women delivery executives. Our tech team is currently working on a solution to make sure that no woman delivery partner is assigned to potentially unsafe locations,’ it added. The corporation claimed to have started in-person seminars in locations like Bengaluru and Chennai, where it has the biggest concentration of female delivery executives, to raise awareness among these individuals.
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